Work part 2

Continuing with the scriptural exploration of work...

• Ex 12:16. This is the first occurrence of a vacation day, festival, or rest day since the 7th day of Creation. The Sabbath is a major theme of the Pentateuch.
• Ex 15:11. "Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?" All of us are given tasks and work to do. We work the soil, work the client base, work the audience--but only God works wonders!
• Ex. 18:18. Jethro visits Moses and quickly realizes that Moses is burning himself out. "What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?" Moses answered him, "Because the people come to me to seek God's will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and laws." Moses' father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone."
  
  I find this to be a profound scripture. I see a lot of my life wrapped up in Moses right here. I find it natural to be wanted, to be important, to accomplish things and have a purpose in life. What better purpose than to help people? And yet this role can be completely consuming. There will always be more needs! The world is full of needs and they can't possibly all get met by a single person.
  
  For me, this is where faith in God can rescue me. God created the church, the body of Christ to function as a unit (1 Cor 12). The whole is much much greater than the sum of the disparate body parts. When our efforts are coordinated and unified, God can use a few people to accomplish anything! (Gen 11:6)
  
  This is why it's important to be part of organizations where teamwork is emphasized, valued, and built. Microsoft rewards me for being an "individual contributor," but without a strong team, my contributions won't have the impact they otherwise could because I'd spend all my time building infrastructure rather than focusing on my area of specialty.
  
  God used Jethro to help Moses see his need to build an excellent team to share the mental, physical, and spiritual burden. As I've been raising kids the last three years, the need for teamwork with my wife has become abundantly clear. Without teaming up, we will not succeed. I'm really not sure how single parents do it!
  
• Ex. 20:9-11. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
  
  "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day."
  
  These are the two Sabbath commands in the Bible. Same command, but different reasons for obedience. The Exodus scripture encourages the people to imitate God. The Deuteronomy text tells the Israelites that Sabbath is a weekly reminder of God's deliverance from Egypt (the core event in their faith) so that they remain spiritually focused on their need for God. This is not unlike our Communion where we remember Jesus' crucifixion, the core event of our faith and through it our powerful deliverance from sin. We need this weekly reminder!
  
• I grew up keeping the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday just as the Jews were instructed (the Jewish tradition is that the day begins at sundown rather than sunrise). However, in my Seventh-Day Adventist subculture, the details of Sabbath-keeping were left as an exercise to the reader. The core command was "thou shalt not do any work" at which we were fairly successful. The outcome of this way of life, however, was that my family worked very hard six days a week. In college, I did homework right up until sundown Friday, and then started back into it on Saturday night after sundown. There was certainly a benefit from taking a 24 hour break, but I did notice the effect of compressing the rest of the week.
  
  When I attended church at Green Lake in 1997-99, my church and leadership responsibilities grew to the point that Sabbath was not very restful. When I became a disciple and no longer had any responsibilities at that church, I had some very extended QT's on Saturdays while I still kept Sabbath.
  
  Correct Sabbath behavior is certainly a moving target in the Seventh-Day Adventist religion. My family was the only one at church who did not know who won the Blazer playoff game the night before. SDA's do not attempt to interpret the scripture literally as do the Orthodox Jews, who in my opinion are following the 4th commandment most closely by not causing anyone else to work. We depend on one another in our modern culture that it is nearly impossible to prevent others from working unless you live a self-sufficient lifestyle in the woods or like the Amish.
  
• Ex 26-31, 35-40. The Israelites undertake the task of building a tabernacle for the worship of YHWH. This endeavor brought people's various talents to bear on a spiritual problem. The curtains were the "work of an embroiderer" (26:36). The ephod was the "work of a skilled craftsman" (28:6). The sacred anointing oil was the "work of a perfumer" (30:25). The tunics for the priests was the "work of a weaver" (39:27). Moses inspected it and "finished the work" (40:33).